Pentagon launches effort to assess crypto’s threat to national security

The military’s innovation office is launching a sweeping review of cryptocurrencies to assess threats to national security and law enforcement posed by the rise of digital assets.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — better known as DARPA, the office that developed the earliest technology undergirding the internet — has hired crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital to conduct the year-long project. The company will develop tools that give the Pentagon a granular view of crypto markets’ inner workings, in part to help authorities crack down on illicit uses of digital assets.